The Social Media Conference

Alicia Custis is an award-winning communications specialist with over 20 years’ experience in corporate communications.

Following the saline poisoning incident at Stepping Hill Hospital in July 2011, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust immediately asked Alicia to come on board to lead communications around the incident and implementing an overall communications strategy for the organisation. The communications team subsequently won ‘Team of the Year’ at the national Association for Healthcare Communications & Marketing awards in 2013. 

Alicia is also involved with health and social care communications planning for Greater Manchester Devolution, as a member of the 'GM Devo' communications working group. 

She was previously head of communications at The Christie for 10 years. The Christie is the largest cancer centre in Europe, an international leader in cancer research and runs the second largest hospital charity in the UK. Her earlier experience includes six years working at PR agencies on a wide range of commercial accounts.

Twitter account: @AliciaCustis 

Anu Hautalampi is the Head of Social Media and AV at the University of Cambridge. Together with her team she manages Cambridge University’s main social media channels with a total following of 4,5M. She has previously managed digital communications for public sector, charity and higher education organisations.

Twitter: @anuhautalampi 

Drew is the founder and CEO of multi award winning communications agency Battenhall, named 5x winner of the accolade of UK consultancy of the year 2020. He has 20 years of experience working in social media and communications, most recently in CEO roles.

Since launching Battenhall in 2013, Drew has built it up to an industry leading position, winning 16 'agency of the year' awards in our first seven years in business. Battenhall has been named best specialist agency in the UK for 2020 by the CIPR, social media agency of the year 2020 at the Global Digital Excellence Awards, PR Week small consultancy of the year 2020, and our work with NHS England won the most awards at the UK Social Media Awards 2020, including best campaign on Instagram, on TikTok and in the public sector.

Personally, Drew has been awarded the PRCA's outstanding contribution to digital comms award 2020; named UK's #1 most respected practitioner by New Media Age's Reputation Online report in 2011; was one of PR Week magazine's inaugural 29 under 29; and is a regular in the PR Week Power Book.

Drew also wrote the Wikipedia page on social media.

Nana Crawford is the award-winning Social Media Manager for the British Red Cross. With over a decade of experience in leading on seamless and effective social media strategies, pushing creative boundaries and challenging perceptions, she’s worked across retail, hospitality and entertainment, government and now the charity sector. Nana manages an innovative and creative social media team, who have brought new life into the channels of the British Red Cross and raised over £90,000 through a partnership with TikTok for the British Red Cross.

Russell Cartwright is a senior, award winning, communications and marketing leader with over 20 years of experience managing teams and leading communications, marketing, PR, events, public engagement, and crisis management. He has worked in senior healthcare roles in the NHS since 2001, with a two year break at the General Medical Council, and is currently Assistant Director of Communications and Engagement at NHS South East London CCG. Recently he has developed his knowledge in using behavioural insight techniques and has seen the benefits of this evidence-based approach, running social media campaigns which have delivered real impact.      

Ollie is a digital marketing specialist, with over 7 years of experience working on some of the UK's most recognisable brands and businesses. Hailing from a sales background, he made the switch into marketing at a young age, working for established nightlife chain Café Mambo on the sunny shores of Ibiza, creating viral content that delivered over 200 million impressions and over 500,000 new followers.

Since then, he’s worked in a multitude of sectors, driving 27% sales growth in travel, setting up six-figure income streams in the agency world, offline activations in the leisure sector and driving a 500% increase in social media engagements in the alcoholic drinks category.

He’s now focussing his attention on a brand much closer to home. Working as the Digital Communications specialist for household brands Yorkshire Tea and Taylors of Harrogate (FMCG). Bringing his own flair of “digital eccentricity” into the market including; a social distancing teapot, Falling biscuit Instagram filters and the much needed – Teamoji.  

Alistair Beech, Senior Social Media Coordinator, The University of Manchester - @OfficialUoM @alistairbeech on Twitter

Alistair is the Senior Social Media Coordinator at The University of Manchester, where he oversees the strategic direction of corporate channels and leads a hub of social media professionals across campus.

He is an experienced digital marketing and communications specialist with over twelve years’ experience in public and private sector roles, including agency and in-house. CIM-certified, Alistair has spent the last seven years working in Higher Education and is a regular conference presenter and trainer.

Amy Mollett is Head of Social Media at the UK Parliament. She leads a team who use social media to communicate the work of Parliament to over 2.5 million people, covering everything from livestreaming PMQs on YouTube to Big Ben Instagram quizzes.

Before joining UK Parliament, Amy was Social Media Manager at the London School of Economics, where she built the university’s first social media strategy and launched the most-followed Instagram channel in UK Higher Education. 

Amy also played a leading role in LSE’s award-winning academic blogs, as editor of LSE Impact of Social Sciences blog and LSE Review of Books. With her fellow blog editors, Amy is co-author of Communicating Your Research with Social Media: A Practical Guide to Using Blogs, Podcasts, Data Visualisations and Video (SAGE: 2017). 

Amy is on Twitter @amybmollett and LinkedIn.

Having spent over six years working alongside global brands including American Express, L'Oréal, and Unilever, Mercedes' experience spans broadly across marketing. At Brandwatch, Mercedes is responsible for the launch of new products and features to ensure that Brandwatch customers are set up for success.

Twitter: @mercedeslois  

Justin is a social media and digital crisis communications specialist with more than 10 years’ experience leading social media, PR and digital communications in Government and the public sector, both in the UK and overseas.

A regular keynote speaker at major social media conferences across the UK and Europe, Justin previously spoke at the Dods Public Sector Social Media Conference in London and chaired the conference in Manchester and Sheffield. Justin runs Manchester’s fastest growing social media industry event series (SocialMCR) and judges some of the world’s biggest industry awards, including the UK, US and Global social media, marketing, and content awards.

Justin runs social media consulting firm, JustSocial, where he provides strategic counsel and operational advice to some of the world’s biggest brands. Justin also works as a Non-Executive Director and Social Media Director for multiple UK agencies.